Completion List : Kolchak (The Original Series )

A while ago I watched the complete series of the Kolchak remake. I had watched several episodes of the original but couldn’t find the DVDs for the rest. Thanks to Netflix, I finally finished the original show.

Stephen King wrote in Danse Macabre that the series got weaker as it went on. I don’t completely agree but the final episode about a modern underground dinosaur was every bit as silly as the final transgender body-swapping episode of the original Star Trek.

The reptile-man made the Gorn look like prize-winning special effects of 2028. My kids have watched a lot of Power Rangers and the Night Stalker dino-man wasn’t up to those standards.

Then again, the werewolf costume earlier in the season wasn’t much better.

King also complained how convoluted it was to have all the monsters centralized in Chicago. I think the X-Files learned from that.

Otherwise, the stories were fun and Darren McGavin sold even the weakest set ups. John Fielder, the voice of Piglet, played a reoccurring character as the local coroner and fit in surprisingly well. The production values of the remake were much superior but in the end, I enjoyed the original much more.